Supposedly, most rods are pretty good. I was trying to help a cousin with his casting on a 6 wt trout rod. It was miserable and very difficult to use compared to my two Sage rods (RPL and SP). So, I think rods can make a big difference.

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Ted
Speyclave Contributor

Practice is about increasing your repertoire of ways to recover from your mistakes. Joann C. Gutin

I was hired recently by a gentleman who had a mail order single-handed striper rod from a big catalog company. Since most of these rods are made by major rod makers and re-branded, I assumed it would be fine. Watching the casting trouble through the morning I was tempted me to ask to try the rod... let's just say not all rods are created equal and the rod was definitely making his day more miserable than it needed to be.

The 'flex profile' through the length of the rod was not at all smooth and parts of the rod (as the energy traveled through it) felt hard where the caster would expect a little sweetness for single hand rod. This made the hand and arm work very hard, and the rod did little but get in the way of the arm trying to move line around where a good rod generates it's own momentum to aid the cast.

It's true, not all rods are created equal. Nor are lines, leaders and flies for that matter. No wonder we talk about this stuff so much to keep it all sorted out

I'm glad the past few posts were made. I am thinking of upgrading my rods and was leaning towards the TFO stuff. What are your thoughts on TFO. To me right now, its a price issue. My rods to upgrade are 3, 4 and 6 weights, all at 9 ft. I already own a TFO TiCR 8 wt. I really like it, but still getting used to the faster action, hence the tailing loop problem.

Since my last post, I've worked on tails and almost eliminated them with everyone's help/advice. Thanks to Dana for the videos. I got to see exactly what I was doing wrong from seeing him make tails. I started to apply drifting and voila!!! my tails were gone. I snap better at the end of my forcast with a drift. I have doubled my line speed and now have a problem with a tail on my backcast. jeez, I fix one problem and inherit another. I know whats going wrong, just need to work on it.
I test drove a Sage XP 490-4 last weekend and had a blast. I felt confident enough to cast it 60-70 ft without effort. The XP actually helped me 'feel' my casting and adjust it on the spot. Wonderful rod. I had posted in another thread about getting an XP and now I need to start saving for it.
That was one of the rare rods that when a picked it up to start playing with, I felt nothing but line the whole time. My TiCR 8 wt I'm still struggling to feel the line, not the rod, but I'm getting better at feeling it.

juro,
thanks for the comment. since i can throw better loops (forward cast), i can get more speed with hauling and not having to worry about throwing a big open loop, which would slow me down. my tails on the backcast are because i am waiting to long to start my backcast and the line flips under like a tuck cast. since i am gaining speed, my timing is off on starting the backcast. forward cast = no tails. back cast = tails. i've been working on my forecast so hard, i let my backcast kinda go to crap. now i can work on it while still getting a good forecast. oh, and did i mention that drifting made wonders of how i can 'feel' the load and getting a good snap. i have been trying to fix every aspect of my casting all at once. not a good idea. too much to think about at once. so, i started over from the beginning and correcting one fault at a time. when i feel comfortable enough, i'll post video of my progress. once i get this down with a single hand rod, i'll start getting into spey casting. i've been doing some spey stuff on a single hand rod and its fun as hell. granted i dont have casting distance, a small river is good enough for a 9 ft. rod.

In a conversation with Tim Rajeff, he mentioned that (and forgive me if I mis-quote) line speed as he defines it is the velocity at which the upper half of the loop travels as a straight and taut "javelin-like" unit through the air. If this component of the cast is wiggly, flying upward, downward, sideways, etc - then no matter how fast the rod is moving it will lack speed over the course of the cast.

This way of looking at the loop has dramatically improved my thinking. I had worked my way to a very tight lower half of loop with a spey cast, and although both halves were tight with the single hander (probably more due to double hauling) there was much room for refinement. I have spent many hours tuning my stroke to produce the most efficient 'javelin' speed and shape I can. I have not perfected it yet but can produce the shape I want with increasing regularity each time out. Like yourself it has given me a basis for refinement and pursuit of a better cast.

Per the tailing loop, it sounds like you have already diagnosed the "shocking" of the stroke due to a late start. There is also the possibility that an upward drift is starting early on the other end, pulling the direction of the lower half of the loop upward while the upper half continues in it's original path - a collision course.

Bruce Richard's writings have also been of great influence to my practice regimen. He writes "Everything about the loop size and shape is determined by the path the rod tip takes while accelerating the line, and what it does during and after deceleration. Where the top leg of the loop is, and the top leg shape (curved up, straight, curved down, curved to the side) is determined by the path the tip of the rod takes while acclerating the line. The path the rod tip takes during the deceleration determines the shape of the "point" of the loop. What position the rod tip holds after the loop has been formed determines where the bottom leg of the loop will be.

If the tip path is upward through the acceleration, the top leg will be high, if the path through the deceleration is a rather broad curve forward, ending low, the loop "point" will be very round, if the tip ends up low after the deleceration that will direct the bottom leg low, resulting in a typical big round loop. "

Therefore in a tailing loop scenario, quite often the path of acceleration occurs in one vector, while the path of the rod tip during deceleration and position it holds after effects another. Just a thought, and interesting to think about. It might help you to try a slower, smoother acceleration going back - minding especially the path that the line accelerates on it's way to the start of the drift. Combined with starting the backcast just before your forward cast 'kicks' over you should be good to go!

Laban,
Are you having tailing loops on your backcast when you are false casting or on the intial pick-up backcast? Both present a slight different move with the rod. If on the intial pick-up backcast, make sure there is a definite rod-tip pick-up (breaking the water tension with the line) to around 10:30ish before you start the power phase of the cast. This movement gets your rod tip to the proper plane for a good straight line tip path. If your are getting tailing loops during false casting, then after the forwards stop, reach forward (call follow through) a little bit. This forwards reach (follow through) is like drift on backcast. This move is without power and is repositioning the rod slighlty forward. The follow through allows you more territory and you will gain better line control and line speed. Klem